A common problem with stringed instruments is the difficulty of transporting them from place to place. Stringed instruments, such as guitars, have a long neck member with exposed strings extending from the body of the instrument and are susceptible to damage during transportation. This requires the use of large carrying cases to prevent damage and the resulting package is bulky and unwieldy. In order to solve this problem, others have proposed guitars and other stringed instruments which can be folded or collapsed into smaller packages for ease of transport. A number of patents describing such constructions are summarized below.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,464,100 issued Mar. 8, 1949 to Ruggiero discloses a collapsible base fiddle having a body which separates into two sections along a vertical median plane into a right hand section and a left hand section. One body section may be nested within the other body section and a separate reinforced neck member with strings attached may be carried within the nested sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,803,982 issued Aug. 27, 1957 to Gassin et al. discloses a disassemblable bass violin with a detachable neck member having the strings attached to tuning pegs on one end and having the other ends of the strings anchored to a bar and buckle arrangement held in the lower end of the case by a peg.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,211 issued Feb. 14, 1978 to Jorgensen shows a collapsible guitar with a hinged neck which folds into a recess in the underside of the guitar body. To untension and disconnect the strings so as to fold the neck, a common bridge unit is removed from one spring clamp on the bottom of the guitar body and relocated to a second spring clamp, so that the neck may fold while the strings are still attached to the tuning pegs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,085 issued Mar. 4, 1980 to Litwin illustrate a stringed musical instrument whose neck is detachable from the body of the instrument and is reversed and inserted into a hole to locate the tuning pegs inside the case while the strings are still attached.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,672 issued Oct. 11, 1994 to Stewart shows an electric guitar with a detachable neck held in place by a quick release neck clamp.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,686,882 and 5,058,479, both issued to Shaw on Aug. 18, 1987 and Oct. 22, 1991 respectively, show acoustic guitars with folding collapsible bodies. The collapsible bodies have wing panels which are moveable to reduce the size of the guitar body. The latter U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,479 has a removable neck member which is stored inside a collapsed reinforced guitar body and a tuning peg head which may be removed from the neck. The strings must be separately loosened and removed from a permanently affixed saddle and then re-attached and tuned when the guitar is assembled.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,578 issued Feb. 21, 1995 to Raymer, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,385 issued Jan. 24, 1995 to Gilbert illustrate additional variations of collapsible guitars having hinges to reduce the overall size of the instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,391 issued Mar. 4, 1986 to White illustrates a guitar with various components to be assembled and attached to an inflatable bladder which supports the guitar body.
The foregoing patents illustrate various approaches to designing a stringed instrument with special structures adapted to reduce the size of the instrument. It would be desirable to have an improved stringed instrument which quickly breaks down into easily transportable size and shape, yet which can be quickly assembled and played without excessive time to assemble and tune the instrument. It would also be desirable to provide further improvements in collapsible guitars which allow quick assembly and disassembly without affecting the sound qualities of the instrument or requiring complicated structures.
Accordingly one object of the invention is to provide an improved stringed instrument which is easy and quick to assemble and disassemble.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved collapsible guitar.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved stringed instrument which requires minimum time to assemble and tune the instrument.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a collapsible guitar which occupies a space not much larger than one half of the normal guitar body.